meet the tutors: beth miller

Beth is the author of six novels, including the bestselling The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright (2020). Her most recent novel, The Woman Who Came Back to Life (2022), is published in seven languages and her seventh novel will be published in summer 2025. She has also published two non-fiction books about Shakespeare and the Archers. She teaches on the Creative Writing Programme in Worthing and is a subject tutor on the Creative Writing MA and MFA at West Dean College, and a regular tutor for Arvon.

When do you first remember wanting to be a writer? When I was about six I wrote a book about Mr Noop, a teacher with a very long nose. I illustrated it too, and it found an enthusiastic readership (my mum thought it was quite good). But I didn’t really start to write with publication in mind til my thirties.

Your first novel When We Were Sisters was published in 2014 and explores friendship, family and religion. Can you tell us about the inspiration behind the story and your journey to publication?  I started writing that book in 2000, and it was published a mere 14 years later. It was originally inspired, as are so many first novels, by something that actually happened. But over the course of fifty or so drafts it turned into fiction. I had many rejections, rewrote the book endlessly, and when I finally got an agent, she told me to cut out 30,000. Doing that final edit was how I learned to write.

You’ve since written five more books. How has your writing process changed in that time? I did everything wrong the first time, including leaving the book for months on end. I am a lot faster now (my second book took eight months from start to finish). The other big change is that I now trust the process in which a messy first draft is transformed by rewriting. The messy is important as it’s where the creativity is. 

You’ve also written two non-fiction books about the Archers and Shakespeare. Can you tell us about the inspiration behind those and whether your writing process was different  writing non-fiction? I was asked to write the Archers book because I wrote a silly blog about the Archers, and then I was asked to do the Shakespeare book because I got the Archers book in on time. I loved writing them; I find writing non-fiction way easier than fiction. I’m really proud of the Shakespeare book – I had to write summaries of all the plays and make them accessible. I am asked to update the Archers every few years as the radio drama is very fast-moving and action packed.

Tell us about your most recent novel The Woman Who Came Back to Life, which has been published in seven languages. It’s not directly autobiographical, but it’s my most emotionally truthful book. I think it touched a chord with people who read it. Pearl, the main character, has been through a lot and has decided to hide away rather than face up stuff. The book I get the most emails about saying, ‘you’ve written my life’, though, is The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright.

What do you think it is about The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright that has resonated with the lives of so many people? It’s a book about lifelong friends, and what it feels like to have them, and sometimes lose them. It’s also about reclaiming one’s life in middle-age. I’ve had many emails from people telling me about friends they have lost, and others telling me how they’ve walked out on 30 year marriages. Several told me things they’d not revealed to anyone before. What a privilege to hear those stories. It didn’t hurt that the book came out at the start of lockdown and I think readers enjoyed reading about the travelling in it that they couldn’t do in real life. 

 What’s the most challenging aspect of writing?  Sitting in a chair typing for really long periods of time. I wish I could write while walking. Oh and I hate first draft. I despise the blank page. I am a rewriter more than a writer.

And the most enjoyable?  Line edits. I love that stage, when the difficult storytelling is done, and you’re just polishing it up. If the whole thing was line edits I would be so happy.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given about writing? Don’t get it right, get it written. I still recite that to myself whenever I get stuck.

What’s your go-to book about the craft of writing?  Ann Patchett’s The Getaway Car, an essay in her book This is the Story of a Happy Marriage. I re-read it every year. It reminds me what I’m meant to be doing. And I love William Goldman’s Adventures in the Screentrade.

 What are you working on at the moment?  Currently I’m finishing the edits on novel number seven, which comes out in August. I still don’t know the title yet. Hopefully it will have one. It’s about friendship.

Beth will be teaching on the Creative Writing Programme in Worthing Library starting in October. If you’re interested in the programme, in Worthing or our other centres in Brighton, Eastbourne or Tunbridge Wells, then sign up for a taster session so you can see if it’s for you. https://bit.ly/4k3Y0E8